Carly Simon - Biography - IMDb Carly Simon Jump to: Overview (2) | Mini Bio (2) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (29) Overview (2) 5' 10½" (1.79 m) Mini Bio (2) She was raised in the Riverdale section of New York City with two sisters and a brother. Her father, Richard Simon, played Chopin and Beethoven on the piano. She attended so many Brooklyn Dodgers games with her father that she was made a team mascot before they moved to Los Angeles. She once said if she could see herself in a ballplayer, it would be Pee Wee Reese; a shortstop is not quite in the infield and not quite in the outfield. Three of her uncles gained distinction in various fields of music. George, as an authority on Jazz; Henry, as a Musicologist and book editor; and Alfred, as the music director of a classical radio station. She attended Riverdale County School and spent two years at Sarah Lawrence before dropping out to form a folk duo with her sister, Lucy. They billed themselves as the Simon Sisters and managed to get work at small clubs on the eastern seaboard.

Carly even did Al Jolson improvisations. Lucy eventually left the act and married a physician. Carly's eldest sister Joanna was a professional opera singer. Carly suffered from severe stage fright and one time passed out and collapsed in the middle of a concert in 1981. She met her first husband...James Taylor...as a child when their parents had summered near one another on Martha's Vineyard. (Taylor's father was director of the UNC Chapel Hill Medical College). She married Taylor in 1971 and they later divorced. She has been married to writer Jim Hart since 1981 and they live on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. She has a son and daughter from her marriage to James Taylor. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Mike McKinley <alovelyway@aol.com> The daughter of Richard Simon, co-founder of the Simon and Schuster publishing company, Carly got her start in music singing in coffee houses with her sister Lucy in the early 60s.

After an unsuccessful attempt to launch a solo career, Carly burst onto the music scene in 1971 with her first Top 10 hit "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be," which won her the Best New Artist Grammy Award and set the stage for an enormously successful career. After her second hit, "Anticipation," Carly roared to the top of the charts with her album NO SECRETS, and its #1 hit "You're So Vain." Newly married to James Taylor, Carly piled up a series of bestselling albums, including PLAYING POSSUM (1975), which featured controversial cover art of a scantily-clad Carly, although there had always been a sort of subtle sexuality on many of her album covers before (and after); however, none were as blatant as this particular one. Her career marched on, and in 1977, Carly performed her first movie-theme, "Nobody Does It Better," from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and it became an international smash.

Her sales high continued with 1978's "You Belong To Me" and the album BOYS IN THE TREES, but after the release of her hit "Jesse" in 1980, Carly's career started to wane. Although she released a series of interesting albums in the '80s, none of them were commercial successes. After her divorce from James Taylor, she also retired from performing live. But then in 1987, Carly wrote the theme for HEARTBURN - "Coming Around Again" - and her career was revitalized. The song was a big hit and the album of the same name was a best-seller and charted for well over a year. By that point, she was a legend and was then able to release albums at a more relaxed pace, which allowed her to be more adventurous in her writing and creativity. Since then, all of her work has been very well received, most notable "Let The River Run," which she wrote for WORKING GIRL and won her her first Oscar.

Carly's album THE BEDROOM TAPES (2000) reflected her personal trials more overtly than any of her other albums up to that point, particularly a case of writer's block as well as her breast cancer ordeal and the accompanying depression she experienced due to chemotherapy. Nevertheless, Carly is now healthy and content and remains a notable presence in the media and music industry, including her cameo on Janet Jackson's "Son of a Gun," as well as the televised tribute to Beach Boy Brian Wilson. - IMDb Mini Biography By: jonathan Spouse (2) ( 3 November 1972 - 1983) (divorced) (2 children) Trivia (29) Has released musical albums (including CDs) on the Elektra, Warner Brothers, Epic, Arista, Rhino, Columbia, Hear Music, and Iris records. Her song "You're So Vain" (released in late 1972) was a number-one pop hit in 1973. Is the niece of singer 'Peter Dean'. Wrote "Anticipation" (1971) about love interest Cat Stevens . Her father was president and co-founder of Simon & Schuster publishing house.

Children with James Taylor : Sally Taylor (b. 7 January 1974) and Ben Taylor (b. 22 January 1977). Her song "You're So Vain" is allegedly about Warren Beatty . Received an honorary degree from Berklee College of Music (Boston, Massachusetts) Ranked #28 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll Won the 1972 Grammy for Best New Artist Carly Simon Pictures, News, Gossip & Rumours - AskMen AskMen Messages You have no messages Notifications You have no notifications Carly Simon Carly Simon Simon shot to prominence in the early '70s with big hits like "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" and "Anticipation." "Nobody Does It Better," the theme to the James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me, was her first of several big successes with a movie theme song. During the late '80s, her career was rejuvenated with contributions to the soundtracks of films including Heartburn and Working Girl. Appeal Before Madonna , and way before Britney or Christina made use of provocative images to sell their recordings, Carly appeared in some of the sexiest album cover photos of their time.

Upon examining those images, especially from the early part of her career, it's not hard to discern why Simon was considered one of music's hottest females of the baby boomer generation. The 6', leggy redhead with a wicked, sexy smile occasionally courted controversy with some of those poses. The covers of Torch and No Secrets, with the hard to miss "nipples standing at attention through the body-hugging shirt" look, may be pretty tame by today's standards, but 1975's Playing Possum, with Carly in skimpy panties, was deemed "obscene" by certain authorities on such matters. Even steamier was the cover for 1978's Boys In The Trees, which we think may have inspired the infamous Sharon Stone interrogation scene in Basic Instinct well over a decade later. She's definitely a lady ahead of her time in that regard. Success Carly reached the heights of her fame early on in her career as much for her hit songs as for her marriage to fellow mellow singer-songwriter James Taylor. They were considered rock royalty when they got hitched in '72, and became one of the most photographed and written about celebrity couples on the planet. Simon's most famous song, her No.

1 pop and adult contemporary smash "You're So Vain," is still the subject of mystery and speculation more than three decades after its release. Carly's still queried about who inspired the lyrics, and in 2003, auctioned off the answer to the highest bidder. He had to sign a written agreement, which made him swear to never reveal that secret. Simon has charted 10 Top 20 hits on Billboard's Hot 100, and has had more success on the Adult Contemporary charts, with more than two dozen entries, including 15 Top 10s. "Nobody Does It Better" topped the AC charts for seven weeks in 1977, and she's won two Grammys to date, including 1971's Best New Artist. Her second one came in 1989, when "Let The River Run" from the soundtrack of Working Girl also won her a Golden Globe and Academy Award. In 1993, Simon became the first pop artist to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to write an opera.

She was also perhaps the first pop artist to record an album of jazz standards, when she released Torch in 1981. She continued to interpret music from the 1930s and '40s with subsequent releases including My Romance (1990) and Film Noir (1997). Carly can take credit for starting something that's since been done by other pop artists like Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart, Michael Bolton, and Cyndi Lauper . Carly Simon Biography Carly Elizabeth Simon was born on June 25, 1945, in Manhattan. The youngest child of an upper-class New York City family and daughter of Richard Simon, co-founder of the Simon & Schuster publishing company, Carly grew up in a musical family, and began performing as part of a duo with sister Lucy. The Simon Sisters both sang and were self-taught guitarists who eventually became part of the Greenwich Village folk music club scene during the 1960s. After signing with Kapp Records, they had a minor chart hit with their single "Winkin' Blinkin' and Nod," which peaked at No. 73 in April 1964.

carly simon joins elephant's memory The Simon Sisters broke up around the time Lucy got married, prompting Carly to relocate to Europe for a year. After returning to the U.S., she worked as a secretary for a television production company before quitting to sing lead for the band Elephant's Memory for a brief period in 1968. Simon signed a recording contract with Elektra in 1970, and her self-titled debut was released in the spring of 1971. Carly Simon reached the Top 30 on Billboard's album charts, while the anti-marriage single "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" became her first Top Ten hit in July. Simon's second album, Anticipation, was released in November '71, peaked at No. 30, and became her first gold record. The title track, which featured one-time boyfriend Cat Stevens on guitar and backing vocals, made the Top 20 during the winter of 1972, and was later bought by Heinz for use in its ketchup commercials. In February '72, Simon won her first Grammy Award as Best New Artist of 1971.

carly simon releases you're so vain Simon reached the peak of her commercial success with her third album, No Secrets, released in November 1972. The single "You're So Vain," which provoked plenty of speculation over who it was written about, featured Mick Jagger (one of a handful suggested) singing backup. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in January '73, and went gold, while the LP peaked in the pole position for five weeks, and also sold over a million copies. "The Right Thing to Do," a follow-up single from the album, made the Top 20 that spring. In November 1972, Simon married singer-songwriter James Taylor, and their daughter, Sally, was born in January 1974. Pop music's hot couple recorded a remake of the Inez and Charlie Foxx hit "Mockingbird," which made the Top 5 and became a million seller in early '74. Simon's fourth album, the No.

3 charting Hotcakes, became her third consecutive gold LP, and also produced the Top 20 hit "Haven't Got Time For The Pain." Playing Possum, released in April 1975, cracked the Top 10 and contained the hit "Attitude Dancing." Elektra issued The Best of Carly Simon in November, which went gold and made the Top 20 on the album charts. carly simon does james bond track Simon's sixth LP, 1976's Another Passenger, was a relative commercial flop, stalling at No. 29, and falling off the charts after only three months. A second child, son Ben, was born in 1977. Later that same year, her career was rejuvenated when her recording of "Nobody Does It Better," the theme song for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, climbed all the way to No. 2 and went gold in the process. The song would eventually receive nominations for two Grammys, including Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, as well as an Academy Award nod for Original Song.

In April 1978, Simon's seventh album, Boys In The Trees, was released and became the first of her records to be certified platinum. Her songwriting collaboration with Doobie Brother Michael McDonald resulted in the Top 10 hit "You Belong To Me," while a cover of "Devoted to You" with husband Taylor also reached the Top 40. Spy, her final album for Elektra, was released in June 1979, and reached a disappointing No. 45 on the charts. carly simon releases come upstairs Simon began the 1980s newly signed to Warner Brothers Records. Come Upstairs, released that June, peaked at No. 36 and contained the gold seller "Jesse." In October of that year, she collapsed onstage due to exhaustion, which resulted in her concert appearances becoming a rare occasion. Her next album, Torch, released in September 1981, featured jazz and blues standards of the '30s and '40s. The album made it to No.

50, and while she found her commercial popularity on the wane at home, she managed to score a Top Ten hit in the UK with "Why," produced by disco group Chic. After more than a decade together, Simon and Taylor were divorced in 1983. Later that same year, she returned to the UK Top 20 as the uncredited vocalist on the Will Powers hit "Kissing With Confidence." Her career stateside was continuing to decline, however, with albums Hello Big Man (1983) and Spoiled Girl (1985), her sole album on the Columbia label, selling poorly. carly simon is coming around again Simon launched a comeback in 1986 when director Mike Nichols asked her to write the score for his film Heartburn, resulting in her first U.S. Top 40 hit in over six years. "Coming Around Again" reached No. 18 pop, No. 5 Adult Contemporary, and No. 10 in the UK, while the album of the same name was issued in March 1987.

On the strength of the singles "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of," "Give Me All Night," and "All I Want Is You," the LP went platinum. On a personal front, Simon married poet and magazine publisher Jim Hart in December of 1987. In 1988, Nichols commissioned her to write the theme for his film Working Girl. "Let the River Run" went on to win Simon an Oscar, Golden Globe, and Grammy in 1989. Encouraged by Jackie Onassis, Simon turned to writing children's fiction in the late '80s. Her first book, Amy The Dancing Bear, was published in 1989, and followed in 1990 by The Boy of The Bells and The Fisherman's Song. My Romance, a collection of pop standards issued in March 1990, was quickly followed by the release of an album of original compositions, Have You Seen Me Lately?, that September.

carly simon scores postcards from the edge In 1991, Simon scored another Mike Nichols film, Postcards from the Edge, while her 1992 soundtrack for Nora Ephron's This Is My Life produced the hit "You're The Love of My Life." Romulus Hunt, Simon's "family opera," premiered in 1993, and was also released on CD through Angel Records. Her fourth children's book, Nighttime Chauffeur, also came out in 1993. Letters Never Sent, a personal collection of songs based on unsent letters accumulated over years, was issued by Arista Records in November 1994. Simon embarked upon her first concert tour since 1980, appearing onstage with Daryl Hall and John Oates. Thousands of commuters at New York's Grand Central Station were treated to an unannounced performance by the singer-songwriter in April 1995, during a filming for a Lifetime Television Special. Clouds in My Coffee; 1965-1995, a three-CD box set retrospective, was released in November 1995.

Another album of standards, entitled Film Noir, was issued in 1997, the same year her fifth book, Midnight Farm, was published. carly simon collaborates with janet jackson In late 1997, Simon was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she successfully fought the disease with surgery and chemotherapy. Some of the songs she wrote while undergoing treatment became The Bedroom Tapes, her first album of all original material in six years, released in the spring of 2000. In 2001, Simon sang with Missy Elliott on Janet Jackson 's "Son Of A Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)," which incorporated part of her 1973 chart-topper, "You're So Vain." Rhino/Atlantic released Anthology, a double-disc set in 2002, and was also responsible for Christmas Is Almost Here, released in time for the 2002 holiday season. The recording became a family affair, with musical and songwriting contributions from sister Lucy, son Ben, and former brother-in-law Livingston Taylor.

carly simon gets greatest hits Arista released Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits, in May 2004, prompting Simon to do the rounds of TV talk shows including Live with Regis & Kelly . Simon made a cameo appearance in the 2004 romantic comedy, Little Black Book, and her old hits are heard throughout the film as they "comfort" the lead character, played by Brittany Murphy . Carly re-recorded "The Right Thing To Do" with actress Megan Mullally for a Will & Grace compilation CD entitled Let The Music Out!, released in September 2004. Meanwhile, Carly's slated to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005. Show comments Boys in the Trees: A Memoir by Carly Simon, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® From the Publisher "Intelligent and captivating...Don't miss it." - People Magazine "One of the best celebrity memoirs of the year ... elegantly written and revealing." - The Hollywood Reporter "Carly Simon could have gotten away with just the name-dropping. In her life, she's crossed paths with an astonishing range of famous people, from Cat Stevens and Jimi Hendrix to Benny Goodman and Albert Einstein.

So it's a pleasant surprise that in her compelling new autobiography, Boys in the Trees, she lays out her naked emotions and insecurities, and that she proves to be a supple writer with a gift for descriptions."- Rolling Stone "A lyrical look back at her childhood, her career, and oh, the men in her life...anecdote-filled...dishy without being salacious. There’s plenty here for fans to feast upon" - USA Today “Boys in the Trees meets its lofty expectations. As one of pop music’s more literate songwriters  she was the first solo woman to win a Best Song Oscar for Let the River Run from Working Girl  Simon writes beautifully and affectingly. Her publisher father, for whom she clamored for attention and validation, would be proud.” – Miami Herald Product Details CHAPTER 1 133 west eleventh street This day may have been the day, the very day when my identity was born. Before the incident occurred, I didn't think about who I was. After, I would spend the rest of my life testing myself to see if I had been right.

The whole family was gathered after dinner to make the acquaintance of a possible nurse for Peter, my brother, just born five months before. Lucy and Joey, my two older sisters, and I were all under the age of eight. We lived in the top floor of a six-story town house on Eleventh Street. "Quick, girls, it's almost eight, the plane got in an hour ago. Get dressed and wear shoes and socks and brush your hair." Mommy was holding a cigarette between her lips. She tried to get a brush through the tangles of my feathery hair, and finally grabbed a barrette, attempting to get my hair to go somewhere it stubbornly wouldn't go. She left it in a web of blond knots and went on to an easier task: brushing Lucy's hair. Andrea Simon still had to neaten up her chignon, don her black calf heels, and apply a new layer of lipstick. She always wore bright red. From at least three rooms away I could hear Daddy playing the piano: a strong, beautiful classical piece he'd been working on. It sounded just like a record. Daddy had been in the hospital for five weeks after Peter was born.

He had had a "nervous collapse." I would not learn about psychology until later, when the names and labels and diagnoses would collect and sprawl before me. "Quick, girls." Mommy hurried us along. "Don't forget your manners," she might have repeated several times so it would stick. "I wish he'd play something from Carousel or South Pacific," Mommy thought aloud. "It would make Mrs. Gaspard feel more comfortable, I should think. Rachmaninoff isn't for this kind of meeting," as if any of her three young daughters would know. She really did mean it, though, because she issued one final direction to us and then walked very fast into the living room to tell Daddy, I presume, to stop playing what he was playing and play something more "fun." We girls followed her and could hear them having a minor argument, and then Daddy started playing "The Man I Love," from Strike Up the Band, by George Gershwin. Gershwin had sent him a copy. My father was at the center of the publishing world in 1948, and he had gotten to know Gershwin while the company was doing a book on him.

Daddy had started the company, Simon & Schuster, in 1924, with Max Schuster, and by 1948 things were only getting better. "And he'll be big and strong, the man I love," Joey sang at the top of her voice. Daddy looked up approvingly at his eldest daughter. Mommy had gone for a minute to neaten her hair, and no one noticed that I was not only barefoot but I also had not changed out of my nightgown. It was almost as pretty as a dress, though. The best thing was that Daddy was back! Back to his old self! He was back at the top of his game. The doorbell rang, and Mother, coming refreshed from her and Daddy's bedroom, said in a singsong voice, "Coming." She opened the big, heavy front door, and a woman entered slowly and with the grace of a ballerina. She was tall and had an attractively square head surrounded by light red, very wispy hair. I was nervous that maybe she would be very strict.

But she was so tall and regal, us kids all came to the same conclusion: the potential nurse was auditioning for the job the way an actress would for a part in a play. Daddy stopped playing and came out in front of the piano and introduced himself to Helen Gaspard. It was the kind of exchange Daddy was famous for: witty and charming. Helen seemed quite taken with him, as was everyone. With his height, standing straight at six foot five, his narrow and piercing blue eyes, and his full lips, he looked like a man back on the track. A man who could do almost anything. Mother spoke to Helen as if she were sauntering down the gangplank of the Mayflower, a slowly enunciated, plummy Philadelphia accent. The accent was real — she had been born there — but it had also been consciously honed by watching Katharine Hepburn movies. Helen, however, was from Canada, and Mother's pretentions were lost on her. The entrance and placement of the Simon daughters must have looked choreographed: first Joey, tall and gangly but ultra-sophisticated, with perfect constellations of freckles like Daddy's crossing her straight and perfectly proportioned nose.

Her eyes, like Daddy's, were narrow and blue, and her mouth was ingénue-perfect. She wore a white cotton blouse and a gray cardigan carefully tossed over her shoulders in just the right careless manner — a touch maybe inspired by some late-night Lana Turner melodrama. Her decorous full plaid skirt came to the middle of her slightly knock-kneed legs, and her white high socks fit neatly in black patent leather Mary Janes. Lucy, five years old, was as demure as Bashful the dwarf. Her nose and freckles were almost identical to Joey's, but Lucy's eyes were like those of an Eskimo princess who had gazed too long into the icy waters of the North, causing a permanent squint to form. Lucy wore a rose-colored velvet dress with a white lace collar and, like Joey, patent leather Mary Janes. "Sweet" was written all over her, as she half hid behind her regal and slightly aloof older sister. At almost three, I was the baby girl, a waif, blond sprouting in competing directions from my scalp.

My nose was wider at the bridge than both my sisters', a source of embarrassment for my father, who, I would later find out, favored the Nordic look in the women he loved. My nose wasn't the only way I disappointed him. After two daughters, he'd been counting on a son, a male successor to be named Carl. When I was born, he and Mommy simply added a y to the word, like an accusing chromosome: Carly. My mother made introductions, oldest to youngest. "This is Joey ..." Making perfect eye contact, Joey took three steps forward to shake Helen's hand. "And this is our darling Lucy," my mother went on. Lucy approached shyly, before hurrying back to her starting position and Joey's protective hand. At last it was my turn. "Carly, sweetheart, this is Helen. Can you say hello?" I still remember that moment, that night, when I tapped into a new, unfamiliar part of my personality: I wanted to be noticed. My uncle Peter had recently taken me to see the old 1927 film The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson.

At that second, the only image that came to my mind was of a man in blackface, folded down on one knee, arms outstretched. Barely thinking, I jumped onto the nearby coffee table. With all eyes on me as I bent down onto one knee, my toes curled under to position my weight and steady my balance, I extended both arms, waving my hands and calling out, with as much volume as possible, a single cheery, brassy: "HI!" * * * The town house at 133 West Eleventh Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, was my first home, the building where I, during the winter season, spent my first six years. There were six floors in all, with two apartments on each, and my parents had combined the two highest units to create a rambling penthouse. The style, if any, was eclectic, the rooms furnished in Simon-family Victoriana, books mashed and sprawling from cases and shelves barely able to contain them. Everything crowded together; nothing fit or matched.

The children's rooms were divided by plywood partitions that didn't quite reach the ceiling, with single beds, off a hallway lined on both sides with little slots housing our shoes, sneakers, and boots. Dresses and coats drooped from little hangers off a pole. It wasn't a matter of money, although my parents did like to think of themselves as being thrifty. As the owner of 133 West Eleventh, Daddy populated our building with family members, extended relatives, friends of friends, people who worked for us, and even his colleagues, creating a close-knit boardinghouse of sorts. Among the residents was my mother's mother, Chibie, who lived in a third-floor apartment with our Irish-born cook and nanny, Allie, and one floor below were my father's sister Aunty Betty and Uncle Arthur and their two daughters, Jeanie and Mary (Jeanie was my best friend). Below them lived my father's younger brother Uncle Henry and his wife, Roz, and close by, too, was Daddy's lawyer and friend, René Wormser, who would later play a part in my father's professional unraveling.

Old friends of Chibie, assorted nurses and caretakers, as well as the building's superintendent, Mr. Porter, filled out the other apartments. Some paid rent; Daddy took care of the rest. The residents of 133 moved up and down, from floor to floor, thanks to Jimmy, our elevator man, who opened and closed the iron doors with an accordion flourish. When I was little, Jimmy would always ask me, "Which floor, little lady?" That exchange never got tired. It was Chibie, above all, who fascinated me. Who was Chibie? Where had she come from? No one knew for sure, and Chibie's origins were complicated. One story went that she was the illegitimate daughter of King Alphonso XIII of Spain and a Moorish slave he had gotten pregnant. When Chibie's mother visited the king, infant in hand, he promptly dismissed them. Eventually, Chibie was handed off to another slave girl planning passage from Valencia to Cuba, who concealed the infant under her clothes.

Arriving in Havana, Chibie was handed over to the Del Rio family, Asuncione and Raymond, who, after rechristening her Alma, dispatched her to a convent in England where she was raised by nuns until the age of sixteen. While her dramatic origins were never fully verified, I was able to confirm that until her mid-teens, Chibie lived in England, and that when she left the convent, she could read in eight languages. She was brainy, brilliant, and an utter original. She had dark olive skin and spent the rest of her life bleaching it in order to "pass" in a Caucasian world. Chibie entered into an arranged marriage with a German-speaking Swiss man named Frederick Heinemann. Three children, two boys and a girl, followed — Dutch, Peter, and my mother, Andrea. Mr. Heinemann's alcoholism and physical abuse led to brutal fights and his eventual abandonment of the family. There was another story, too: that when my own mother was sixteen and dating an older man named Steve, who played football for the New York Giants, Steve was enchanted by the then-thirty-four-year-old Chibie.

For the next four years, Steve lived with Chibie, my mother, Uncle Peter, and Uncle Dutch in their hot, cramped, downtown apartment beneath the El train until my mother finally left home. True? Not true? It's hard to know. Certainly a lot of it is verified by my mother's diary. Chibie herself was adept at covering her tracks and her heritage, repeatedly telling my sisters in a theatrical English accent, "When I die you shall find nothing! But nothing!" I spent my early childhood in the company of Chibie and Allie, our nanny and cook, who always made time for me. I'd show up at their apartment on the third floor with a satchel filled with shiny jewels raided from my mother's jewelry box — her tourmaline engagement ring, her pearls, and her Jensen necklaces — and gave them with a flourish to Allie, who had many fewer bracelets, necklaces, and earrings than my mother did. I knew instinctively that there was a socioeconomic gap between Allie and our family. Still, as my friend, why shouldn't Allie have the same jewelry as Mommy?

My Robin Hood–like jewelry-filching became so habitual that a routine of sorts developed: I would pirate the jewelry to Allie, who would then drag it all back upstairs to my parents' apartment, and by dinnertime, my mother would be back wearing her pearls and rings, no fingers pointed, no harm done. But my two favorite adults, the ones who made me laugh the most, were Uncle Peter and Uncle Dutch, who lived in the basement apartment. Uncle Peter was my first crush. During the summers in Stamford, Connecticut, I was his Robin Hood, too, sneaking across the lawn at night and dropping off desserts from my parents' elegant dinner table at the doorstep of his little coffee-drip cabin. Uncle Peter loved me as much as I loved him. He told me jokes. He spoke in funny voices. He made scrunchy faces behind everyone's backs. He did a dance I can only liken to an eggbeater churning, his torso twirling, rubber-boned, as he made strange, ecstatic, spasming hand, leg, and facial movements. He also taught me how to play the ukulele, on which I learned the precursors to my first guitar chords.

Growing up, I assumed every family in the world sang, harmonized, and played the piano together. Half of the residents of 133 West Eleventh Street were musical, including Mr. Porter, the super who sang "Silent Night" all year round. My mother had a light, gentle soprano familiar to me from the Brahms lullabies she almost whispered as she was putting us to sleep. It was Uncle Henry, my father's younger brother, who came up with the idea to start an orchestra and chorus, holding rehearsals every Wednesday night in his neat, overly beige apartment. Like the rest of the refined, upper-middle-class, Upper West Simons — Daddy and his five siblings were all named after British monarchs — Uncle Henry had developed his highbrow taste in prep school, in his case, the Ethical Culture School in Manhattan. Our orchestra, at least as Uncle Henry imagined it, would devote itself exclusively to church hymns and liturgical pieces. At first, everybody was excited to play together, though Uncle Peter and Uncle Dutch would have been much happier playing show tunes, blues, and jazz.

Dutch played a mean mouth bass, and Peter could play anything that Louis Armstrong played, the difference being that instead of a cornet or trumpet, all the sounds came razzing, tooting, and spilling directly from Uncle Peter's mouth. I soon grew to dread those Wednesday night chorus rehearsals — I hated classical music, hated hymns, hated the seriousness of it all — and was relieved when Joey, Lucy, and I were kicked out of the chorus for mugging too much. (In fact, we deliberately sang out of tune in hopes of being expelled.) Uncle Henry often complained about the uneven tonality of the three Simon sisters, our seeming inability to hold a tune due to our "kidding around" and the bad habit we had of laughing "like predatory goons" behind our hands. To me, the best part of those rehearsals was when they ended and I migrated downstairs to the basement apartment, where Uncle Peter picked up the ukulele and together we sang "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," with Peter harmonizing and me singing melody. Over time I would collect different sounds in my head, ways of hearing notes together — a fourth here, a dominant seventh there, though back then certainly nothing had a name!

— and harmonizing would come almost as easily to me as singing melody. Daddy's family was well-roundedly musical. His youngest brother, George, was a drummer who helped found Downbeat magazine. Another brother, Alfie, was the program director for a music radio station, WQXR. Henry was a classical music lover and conductor, as well as a Shakespearean scholar. Daddy, though, was the most talented of them all, a nonprofessional pianist who played as well as the professionals. Whether Daddy ever dreamed of being recognized for his musicianship is something I'd guess yes to. He began studying the piano seriously at age six, and every night spent three or four hours playing Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven. Mommy used to say that though Daddy's playing didn't have the technical perfection of Rubinstein or Horowitz, he played with more emotion and originality, subtlety and abandon. He seemed to relish the position of his hands on the keys, and to this day I can still picture the dramatic curve and sweep of his wrists and fingers. Before Daddy founded his publishing company, his first job out of college was working as a salesman for Steinway & Sons.

In time, the piano would become his only refuge from the hurt and damage of his life, but in those days, Mommy told us only that Daddy could have been a concert pianist if he'd wanted, and that his playing was so nuanced and moving that George Gershwin and Vladimir Horowitz had told him they would rather sit it out than follow his playing. Although his playing was sensitive, there was no question he could be imposing. Mommy was proud. It reflected well on her. As the youngest of the three Simon girls, I remember how many times Daddy made me leave the dinner table as punishment. I also remember kissing him hello and good night, but never getting much affection in return. "Darling, remember to kiss Carly, too," I heard my mother say more than once at bedtime, as if without her reminder and gentle diplomacy, he might have forgotten all about me. During the day, with Daddy at work, I turned to my two slapstick-loving uncles, Peter and Dutch.

They were my private version of of the Marx Brothers, making up songs the three of us sang together, teaching me risqué language, and taking me on double-decker bus jaunts up Fifth Avenue, at an age when my childhood, and my family, seemed as though they would last forever. (Continues...) Excerpted from Boys in the Trees by Carly Simon. Copyright © 2015 Carly Simon. Excerpted by permission of Flatiron Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. SIMON SAYS - Winnipeg Free Press Winnipeg Free Press Radio-friendly '70s pop star delivers early-years memoir that hits all the right notes Reviewed by: Dave Williamson Posted: 01/23/2016 3:00 AM | Comments: Tweet Email Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 23/1/2016 (362 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Carly Simon appeared on the music scene in the early 1970s and quickly became one of the most popular singers in North America. Songs like You're So Vain, Anticipation and The Right Thing to Do are still as hummable and easy to listen to as they ever were. Now 70, Simon has written a memoir that articulately covers the first half of her life, from her sometimes-painful childhood to her stormy marriage with another pop star, James Taylor. The book, Boys in the Trees, is everything a Carly fan -- and, for that matter, any book lover -- would want. She tells all, from the heart. c_ TRIBUNE MEDIA TNS CP FILE - In this April 24, 2008 file photo, singer Carly Simon is photographed in New York. Simon�s version of �Take Me Out to the Ballgame� is included on a CD that accompanies a recently released picture book of the same name. (AP Photo/Jim Cooper, file) Simon was born in 1945 in New York City, the third daughter of Andrea and Richard Simon, who founded the successful publishing company Simon & Schuster.

After two daughters -- Joey and Lucy -- they wanted a boy and intended to call him Carl. That was one of many factors that led to Carly's feeling of being inferior, believing she was never really wanted. She developed a stammer that made her growing-up years painful. Born into wealth, she was always regarded as privileged, and indeed the early years in a large Manhattan townhouse and a summer place in Connecticut would seem to confirm this. But as Carly was trying and hoping to be better loved by her father, he was hit by poor health and a hostile takeover of his company. At the same time, Carly's mother brought a young lover into the house as a live-in male overseer of the son, Peter, who was born after Carly. Meanwhile, Carly discovered she could overcome her stutter by singing. By her late teens, she was singing publicly with her sister Lucy as the Simon Sisters. Some success took them to England, where Carly fell for an older fellow named Willie Donaldson, "a sardonic, impeccably mannered, stone-broke aristocrat." He replaced her first serious boyfriend. Soon, though, she was back in America, trying, like Lucy, to complete her education.

For a summer she worked as a camp counsellor and met Jake Brackman, who became her lifelong friend. Before long, she was writing songs and being encouraged to go it alone as a singer. She vividly describes breaking into that world, with its predators, its drugs and its insecurity. While producing and promoting her debut album, she suddenly found herself being bedded by such well-known fellows as Jack Nicholson, Cat Stevens, Kris Kristofferson and Warren Beatty. After good-naturedly taking all these liaisons in stride, she made a move to meet the man she was coveting: Taylor. "To me, being with James wasn't so much a decision as a kind of magical predestination," she writes. In 1972, they were living together and they both won Grammy Awards. Their impromptu wedding displayed "a slightly ostentatious absence of style." It was held a couple of hours before Taylor's show at Radio City Music Hall, with only three guests -- their two mothers and Jake Brackman.

The last third of the book covers Carly's life with James: taking up residence on Martha's Vineyard; how wildly popular they had become; how crowds went nuts when they appeared together; the birth of their daughter Sarah and son Ben; their many conflicts; James's dependence on drugs and liquor; and Carly's recurring depression and anxiety. Throughout the book, she offers such remarkable candour and insight. "Show business is no place for any normal person," she writes, "[because] you develop an overwhelming need to retain the highest possible position on the world's popularity rosters, your fear of slipping a notch gradually overshadowing talent, art, creativity, empathy, and, hardest to lose, love." Dave Williamson is a Winnipeg novelist who ranks Carly Simon right up there with Frank Sinatra.

Boys in the Trees: A Memoir By Carly Simon Raincoast Books, 376 pages, $34 Advertisement Where Can i Download Boys in the Trees by Carly Simon Free Ebooks ‹ Ebook Download Free Boys in the Trees Reviews Apr 19, 2016 Jason Book 5 of 35 for 2016."My father sits at night with no lights on, his cigarette glows in the dark..."With those hauntingly beautiful words Carly Simon appeared on the music scene in 1970. Her first single "That's the Way I Always Heard It Should Be" made it to Number One on the charts ... Mar 19, 2016 ☮Karen A nod of gratitude to my GR friend, Jennifer, who in her great review said to skip (I skimmed) the first 40% to get right to the good stuff. Rightly so, as I wasn't the least bit interested in Simon's "mommy and daddy" episodes, but greatly interested in the evolution of her music and ...

Mar 1, 2016 Jeanette Well, it's more like an autobiography up to age 35 than what is consistently called "memoir" in this modern age. But regardless, Carly IS honest!What she isn't is something else altogether. Because IMHO, it's rather hard to give her praise or other nice strokes if this book reflects "h... Feb 23, 2016 W. Whalin I listened to every part of this memoir from the well-known recording artist Carly Simon. I learned a great deal about her life. In her early years, the youngest daughter of the co-founder of Simon & Schuster, Dick Simon, Carly Simon struggled with stuttering when she spoke. The bo... Feb 22, 2016 Lori This was an honest memoir by Carly Simon. She was born in New York and grew up in New York City. her father was The "Simon" in Simon and Schuster publishing company. Her father help start up the company. She grew up meeting many famous authors and people in music and show business. Her...

Feb 17, 2016 Louise Carly Simon tells the story of her childhood, the early stages of her career, her single life and her marriage and its disintegration. In each, she openly bares very private parts of herself.The family story was a page turner for me. You could feel the 1950’s formality, its music ... Feb 15, 2016 Sian Lile-Pastore Lovely memoir with lovely writing. I don't really know anything about Carly Simon or James Taylor, so was going in cold. And the story of their relationship is wonderful, romantic and then heartbreaking. She is very kind to him and never bitter, even tho James probably did her wrong (t... Feb 7, 2016 Koeeoaddi 2.5Too much childhood, too little music. Much better to accept that the creative process is mysterious and just listen to the songs.[I should admit that this is not all the fault of the author. I often wind up being unsatisfied by these musical memoirs. They invariably suffer from eith...

Feb 6, 2016 Bob Varettoni The Half-Life of Carly SimonThis is an enjoyable listen – and I do mean listen, since the audio version of this autobiography is read by the author and includes a musical score woven throughout – about the first half of Carly Simon’s life.The narrative basically ends in ... Feb 1, 2016 Barbara Sheppard I guess I have discovered something about myself after reading this book. Memoirs are not for me. I have enough to worry about in my own life and do not really have the energy to fret about anyone else's. I found this book to be kind of boring and upsetting at the same time. It seems t... About the Author Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer/songwriter and musician. She is also an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and two-time Grammy Award winner. Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.

Question: Which well known singer is the daughter of the founder of the Simon and Schuster publishing company
Answer: Carly Simon